Account Management

This section describes how to use the account command

What is an Account?

An account is a locally encrypted file containing a private key. It is encrypted with a passphrase provided by the administration of the compute hosting the Elld client. To start, an Elld client, the administrator must specify an account that will be used to identity the node, sign blocks/transactions and more.

Create an Account

You can use the Elld executable to create as many accounts as you want. Use the create sub-command to create new accounts.

elld account create

After running the command above, you will be prompted to enter your passphrase which will be used to encrypt your account on disk.

Do not forget your passphrase to an account. It is impossible to unlock your account if you forget your passphrase.

After entering your passphrase and repeated the passphrase, your account will be created and your address displayed to you.

New account created, encrypted and stored

Address: eGH15FVreezMwyVqXTmeLx1iKouqqibnCi

If you want to create an account and directly provide a passphrase without being forced to do so interactively, use --pwd flag; The --pwd flag can take a passphrase or a path to a file that contains your passphrase.

List all Accounts

To list all accounts that exists on the host running Elld, use the list sub-command.

elld account list

This will output a list of address similar to this:

Address Date Created

[0] e449uo25WiXxwwbwYG41EMjCRAzAEVZKY6 1 month ago [default]

[1] eLRVae1i58mjHbcCQn3698DQsG3ec73aEv 2 weeks ago

[2] e2KBuPhZbVnKZ4Z7cNXRZ6wNjQqf1RGchg 2 weeks ago

The first account; The one with 0 index is always considered the default account. The 0-indexed account is also the oldest account.

Import a Private Key

If you already have an Ellcrys private key that you intend to import, the import sub-command allows you to create an account from an existing private key.

First, you must store the private key in a file. Next you provide the path to the file as an argument to the import command.

import.sh

private_key.txt

elld account import"private_key.txt"

After running the command above, an interactive prompt is started to collect your passphrase to be used to encrypt your imported account on disk. If you do not want to go through an interactive session to provide your passphrase, use --pwd to directly specify a passphrase.

The --pwd flag accepts a string for a passphrase or a path to a file containing your passphrase.

Update an Account's Passphrase

When you need to update the passphrase of an account, you can use update sub-command. The sub-command takes the address of the account whose password you wish to update.

elld account update "e449uo25WiXxwwbwYG41EMjCRAzAEVZKY6"

Upon execution of the command, an interactive session is started to collect the old passphrase which is used to unlock the account and the new passphrase which replaces the old one.

Do not forget your passphrase. It is impossible to unlock your account if you forget your passphrase.

Reveal an Account

You may need to copy a private key encrypted and associated with an account. When the need arises, use the reveal sub-command to display the content of an account.

elld account reveal e449uo25WiXxwwbwYG41EMjCRAzAEVZKY6

Similar to other sub-commands, you will be prompted to enter your passphrase before the private key is outputted.